Shortly after I moved into my former home, there was a knock at the door. Standing in front of me was an 8-year-old girl who lived down the street. “I’m selling note cards,” she told me, “I made the pictures.” A second look showed subjects a kid might shoot but others demonstrated that she was thinking about the photographs before making them. I bought several note cards and asked about her camera, which turned out to be borrowed. With her grandmother’s permission I gave her an old, unused digital point-and-shoot. The girl loved the camera and was inspired to keep making photographs and we talked from time to time about her aspirations. Today she’s a young woman with professional ambitions.

The big “controversy” of yesteryear was whether film or digital cameras made the most sense for serious photographers. These days there’s a similar debate about the relative merits of PC computers and Macs for editing photos and videos.

Here are some tips I discovered when researching this month’s column. One was from my wife who uses this technique all the time—smile! And you know what, people smile back, making you appear friendly and non-threatening. The other was from Michael Archambault, who suggests you “acknowledge that street photography is not perfect.” Or as my grandfather once told me, “If you spend your whole life looking for happiness, it’ll make you miserable.”

You need a Table Top Tripod to hold your GoPro, Litra Torch, Rode microphone, flash unit, Lume Cube, cellphone, slave strobe, cue cards, etc., etc., and—oh yes—your camera. Whether you’re a vlogger, photographer, Zoom-connected work-from-home-employee (Hommuter) or just somebody who likes to take pictures of their food, you need one of these guys. Maybe two. So here are five good choices to consider.

As image resolution keeps getting bigger and better, photographers are challenged storing their images. One cost-effective solution that’s gaining in popularity and offers good protection is a Network-Attached Storage (NAS) server. However, they are a relatively unfamiliar option for most photographers who aren’t IT-oriented, so we thought it would be a good idea to get guidance on them from an expert.—Editor

As billions of images are produced by millions of devices, the demand for bigger capacity storage, faster memory cards, and speedier methods of transferring huge files has become apparent. Cloud storage has become a standard offering among many camera makers; so independent cloud services have grown. Essentially branded server farms, the competition for your data is increasing, as are capacities of desktop backups.

My best friend’s daughter just left to study design in Europe and was given the standard litany of safety precautions by her parents. One city she’s visiting is notorious for street thieves—pickpockets and their ilk—so she was advised to be extra vigilant. I won’t name the city for fear of maligning it as a risky place for tourists, but I will divulge that citizens there eat more pasta per capita than anywhere else in the world. Lots more.

Let’s face it, air travelers. Takeoffs and landings in cataclysmic weather are a breeze compared to waiting for your bags to appear on the luggage carousal. Did your unlocked bag survive the flight without rupturing along the seams? Was it opened for inspection? And who would have thought that 14 other passengers checked black American Tourister Fieldbrook luggage sets identical to yours? Sound real? Then check out this Strapsafe Luggage Belt from Pacsafe.

Like most of you, I’ve been frustrated by the amount of dust that accumulates not only on my sensors but also on my cameras and lenses in general. It’s an ongoing battle. Take photos, clean cameras; take photos, clean cameras.

One of the hallmarks of fine art photography is the production of archival prints. Which begs the question, does the social media generation care about a print’s longevity or photographic prints at all? Maybe that changes when you drop five figures on a fine art print or hire a high-end photographer to create a portrait you expect to last as long as a traditional silver-based print.